Re: Electronics again
entertaining discussion - vezo II, I know how you feel, trying to sort out all the new stuff, and figure out what you need / want / can afford.
I'm pretty much a cheap bastard myself, and just went thru this last summer, and didn't have a clue about GPS, was an old time chart and compass man, though had grown to feel naked without a fish/ depth finder - Fr. Frank gave me a lead, at the time, which I followed.
Something which doesn't seem to get much play, for salt water use, is the Humminbird line, but I had one for 20 years across several boats, and it always worked, and worked well, fresh or salt water, and my brother has been using one almost as long, in the salt, so by direct experience I was comfortable with them - anyways, make a long story short, I went with a lower end Humminbird Matrix 27, it's b&w, but I don't feel a need for color on the fishfinder. I also got a Garmin hand/ bracket held GPS-Map 76. I've come to really like this, easy to use, key for me is user friendliness, and it is.
Having used this combo last summer, I will say the Humminbird finder is great, but I do wish I had got a color GPS, thought the bw works just fine.
It's a bear trying to compare these in a catalog, or on line. I went to the Boston boat show last weekend, and was surprised to see, on many of the "bigger" models, the screen was Not significantly bigger than my little handheld, so I was g;ad to see I hadn't dropped $500 on something, when my little $200 unit had basically the same size screen.
I guess my bottom line is to suggest you go do some direct shopping, see the units side by side, and demo them hands on and see how You feel about the user friendliness of them.
Also - on the built in charts - expect to find you need to pay more for the detailed chips, or download, or whatever, as the base map is "ok" but not really very good. when I launch in Gloucester and go up the Annisquam, the garmin base chart tells me I'm on dry land, same thing when I go in Hampton harbor and go over to the Seabrook town dock - I wouldn't even dream of trying the mouth of the Merrimack until I download the detailed chart!! from what I saw of Eagle / Lowrance at the show, their base charts are the same, and you'll have to buy the upgrade chip.
So, just a random collection of thoughts from this old fuddy-dud.
Bill
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