I have a C&C '30 Mark II ('89) and installed the small Furuno (1621) on a specially made pole (Edson) affixed to the starboard aft end. Many dealers out here on the West Coast advise against installing the radome on the mast. Two reasons; it gets regularly hit by the jib and creates a perpetual blind spot (the mast). The cost of mounting/materials and labor was just under a $1,000. I do a lot of night sailing and there's a fair amount of late night and early a.m. fog out here. The radar makes for a more relaxing voyage. Incidentally, I had the radar screen mounte on the helm. As far as I can tell, the rig hasn't noticeably affected my sailing.

I had a Furuno 1700 series CRT radar on my 35 MK1 Impulse( sold to Tom&Kate). It was excellent. I've only used about 10 radars, but I always felt this was the best I'd seen. My new boat came with an older Raytheon. There was such a big difference compared to the Furuno that I finally bought a new radar this past June. I took the advice of a local marine electronics dealer ( Furuno & Raytheon dealer) and bought a JRC model 2000 CRT unit. He said that the Quality is equal to Furuno and Raytheon at about $1000 less. I am delighted with it. The picture is as clear and defined as I've ever seen on any unit. I recommend it without reservation.

The new LCD radars are good and less costly. They do not give as good definition ,etc ,but are thinner, lighter, can be seen better in sunlight, and draw less power. I installed mine in my nav station so this wasn't an issue. I wanted the best picture I could get for those foggy days we have in Maine.

JRC is an old radar manufacturer ( made the Raytheon radars for years) They just started to sell under their own name and are pricing low to break into the market. If you want an LCD type their model 1000 is great at a very low price.I sent a copy of this reply to Santa.
Dave " Webfoot " 37KCB

Thanks for the input. I'm intrigued by your experiences with the Furuno's. A friend in the boating industry suggested the Furuno 1621 as the unit for our boat. I had been automatically assuming that I would get a Raytheon SL70 series of some sort so that it would be a 'seamless' tie-in to our Raytheon/Autohelm instruments but I've been assured that I can display/repeat data the same with the Furuno. As far as mounting the radome, I'm planning on using a gimbaled unit at the backstay. I'll also look carefully at the JRC units. I've always assumed that they were new to themarket. I agree that the CRT's are wonderful but I think that I'll need to spend the extra bucks on regular maintenance items.