Furuno has developed a well-earned reputation for building some of the most durable and feature-rich commercial-grade marine electronics in the industry. Their new touch screen combo units, the GP1871F and GP1971F, have taken on the sleek look and advanced features of their award-winning NavNet TZtouch2 MFDs, but at a truly affordable price.
The feature set on both the GP1871F (7-inch color display) and the 1971F (9-inch color display) are essentially similar, with the only differences being the screen size and the price tag. Since bigger is usually better in the world of marine electronics, especially as it pertains to display size and visibility, the GP1971F would be my choice if you can fit it somewhere on your boat’s dash panel. Both units can be ether yoke mounted on the top surface of the helm or reverse-mounted under the hardtop. If you have the space on your dash panel, a flush mount kit is included in the box of each of these new Furuno combo units.
I had been running a pair of Furuno GP1871F MFDs on my 228 EdgeWater CC for the past three seasons before I upgraded earlier this year to a larger single 12-inch screen. I put three seasons of use on my GP1871Fs and they both worked flawlessly over the course of 2,000 nautical miles, with one performing dedicated fish finding duties and the other the GPS chartplotting. The internal GPS WAAS antennas worked perfectly and allowed me to navigate to my favorite offshore wrecks time and again. Yet another wonderful feature on these commercial-grade combo units, both past and present, is that their screens have the perfect blend of polarizing filters, anti-glare treatment and pixel brightness to be able to see all of the display data in direct sunlight, even when wearing polarized sunglasses.
The GP1871F and GP1971F Chart Plotters utilize full-featured C-Map 4D charts, which empowers you with plenty of useful data that you can overlay onto rich vector and raster charts, such as relief vectors, bathymetric layers, satellite photos, tidal streams and marine plans. Creating routes and waypoints is as simple as touch-and-go, and since the series integrates with Furuno’s NavPilot Autopilot series, navigating to your destination has never been easier. Plus you can let the chart plotter plan your course with its EasyRouting feature. When connected to an AIS receiver, you can see valuable AIS data on the display. If you fish offshore (find the draggers and find the tuna), this unique feature will allow you to find the draggers fast to enhance your hookup potential, without wasting a drop of precious fuel in the process. The standard C-Weather feature provides downloadable wind, wave, weather, humidity and temperature information.
These Combo units also include a built-in single-band TruEcho Chirp, as well as a conventional fish finder, transmitting at 300W, 600W or 1kW. Simply tell the unit which transducer you are using and it will select the appropriate fish finder. The TruEcho Chirp transmits across a spectrum of frequencies, delivering an incredible amount of detail, clearly marking individual gamefish and baitfish. The conventional fish finder includes “RezBoost” data processing for an ultra-crisp, high-resolution picture. Other features include ACCU-FISH fish size assessment, and the highly useful Bottom Discrimination function to help you find the most productive fishing grounds.
Radar can also be overlaid onto the GP1871F and GP1971F chart plotter display via a totally wireless connection to the Furuno DRS4W 1st Watch wireless radar. The DRS4W’s wireless configuration makes it a breeze to add the compact 19-inch radar dome to any vessel. The DRS4W can also display the radar presentation on a connected smart phone or tablet, offering a major upgrade in safety and versatility.
With their generous 7-inch and 9-inch wide-aspect presentations, the all-glass, multi-touch displays give you access to every feature via convenient and intuitive slide-out menus. Slide your finger down from the top of the display to select Quick Pages, including your favorite custom display modes. Slide in from the left to view customized Data Boxes. Slide up from the bottom to quickly adjust your layer settings. Finally, slide your finger in from the right to instantly access the menu functions you use the most. Everything in the menu is intuitive and contextual, so the content relates to the current display mode. You can even tap or double tab the display with two fingers to capture a screen shot or perform other customized functions.
This next-gen of combo units from Furuno allows captains of any size vessel to take advantage of Furuno’s recent innovations, such as their Multi Touch technology, 3D Chart Plotting, TruEcho Chirp Fish Finding, AIS and 1st Watch Wireless Radar, all at a price that promises not to break the bank. For more information, visit www.furunousa.com.
