Northstar discovers cousins, lots of them!

NORTHSTAR_FAMILY_SHOT_lr

As previewed at METS, the Northstar family has no less than 29 new members, which means that the brand now offers full product suites for most any size boat. Of course most of you won’t even need the bigger image to realize that these are very similar to existing Navman products, only with black buttons instead of blue ones. In fact, my understanding is that most of the 27 ‘new’ Explorer units are exactly like their Navman counterparts, though a few have upgrades like higher resolution screens, and—good news—none have risen in price. 
  The one completely new unit is the M84, at right above, which is an 8.4” version of the Northstar M120, which is essentially the same as the Navman 8120 I’ve been testing. In other words, both of the new M Series units should be able to hook up to either SmartCraft engines or stand alone fuel flow meters to show a nifty screen like the one below (never mind the road shown running over the Fox Island Thorofare—just another one of those chart anomalies we should be on the watch for!).
  So far only the M84 is detailed on Northstar’s Web site, and I believe that all these new relatives may retain the Navman name in certain countries like South Africa where it’s much better known than Northstar’s. Finally, whatever the name, most of these plotters have recently acquired excellent AIS display ability, to be illustrated in a coming entry.

Navionics_8120_fuel screen cPanbo



Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

3 Responses

  1. Eliboat says:

    When I spoke with the Navman/Northstar rep at the Newport Boatshow he said that these units were not N2K compatible, but Smartcraft compatible. What gives?

  2. feistycapn says:

    This article indicates Brunswick was trying to unload the Navman operation in Oct. http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=27&objectid=10404174
    Mentions big layoffs and hints that R&D may be reduced.
    Also note that the radar for the radar ready MFDs (M84 & M120) was supposed to be available in Oct. It is available in Oz but not in the US far as I can see.
    Makes me a bit concerned about committing a lot of Boat bucks to them. A shame as they have some neat stuff at fair prices.

  3. feistycapn says:

    More recent news on Brunswick selling Navman Northstar.
    http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2006/12/11/daily1.html

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