May 22, 2018

Furuno has a well-earned reputation for building the most durable and feature-rich commercial marine electronics in the industry, and for applying those technological breakthroughs to their recreational product line. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that their new Combo units, the GP1871F and GP1971F, have taken on the sleek look-and-feel, as well as the advanced features of their award-winning NavNet TZtouch2 MFD’s.

The GP1871F and GP1971F Chart Plotters utilize full-featured C-Map 4D charts. C-Map 4D 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, significantly boosting situational awareness. 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. C-Weather, which provides downloadable wind, wave, weather, humidity and temperature information, is another standard feature.

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 game fish and bait fish. 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 be overlayed onto the GP1871F and GP1971F Chart Plotter display via wireless connection to the Furuno DRS4W 1st Watch Wireless Radar. The DRS4W’s wireless configuration makes it a breeze to add the compact 19″ 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″ and 9″ wide-aspect presentation, 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 new generation of MFD-like 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.