Plotter/Sounder combo? Brands? Models?

[flounderpounder225]

A compass is and a good chart is fine by me, but, picture this conversation, as I sit down with the little lady... "OK hun, the boat is yours this weekend. You and your girlfriends will please wear your PFD's right? Got plenty of wine in the cooler? OK, now this is the big, brand new, EZ4IDIOTS2UZE chartplotter hun. The big red button is ON. The big black one is OFF. You are the cute little boat icon in the middle of the screen. You see the tan bits on the picture on the screen? That is land, you cannot go there. And the blue bits are water. Now, if you look closely, you will see that some of these blue bits have very small numbers on them. You can only go so small hun, size matters here if nowhere else. And this big icon that says "home", well that is our marina. Try not to cross any tan bits getting back here. Have fun!" And I'm going to name the boat "Dockbuster."

So, if you are anywhere within 10 miles of Anna Maria next spring, be afraid, be  very afraid.

;)  Charlie

Charlie
That reminds me of one of our trips to Destin this past year, we're coming home after eating at Helenback Pizza on the water in Destin.  It's dark, and I've had a few so I told Susie she could operate the boat back home, the 40 miles back to Pensacola.  At first she was a little intimidated, but here is the cool part about the Garmin with the G2 Vision SD card.  I brought up the waypoints list, clicked on home, and told it to "Navigate" to the waypoint.  It automatically draws a big purple line and navigates you along the proper channels and bouys, she see's the boat on the screen, cruising along with the red and green markers lit up on the screen, and as she is passing them, she looks port and starboard, and says "That's cool, there they are, this is just like playing a video game"  All I had to do along with the other passengers onboard, was keep an eye out for Nav lights from other boats.  The "navigate to" feature is pretty awesome, a guy in West Marine showed it to me.  Anywhere you want to go, just move the cursor to it on the map, and tell it to "Navigate to it" and up pops the purple line taking you right along marked and safe waterways, no guesswork at all.

[seabob4]

Marc,
The Garmin is excellent at navigating, you are dead on in that respect. Remember, their forte is aviation navigation, so they're pretty good at that stuff.  Never mind what they do for the military that we probably have no clue about...  

Charlie,
I agree with you entirely, especially when the missus might be using the boat.  Just kinda took us back a little bit when we used a compass, a chart, a watch, and the general knowledge of at a certain RPM, what our motor would produce MPH, and therefore, an estimated distance traveled.  Antideluvian, I know, but people used to sail around the world using a sextant, the sun, the moon, and the stars...

[Necessary Evil]

Bob,

I did get the opportunity to impress the little lady a decade or so ago when the electrons went on strike on our charter sailboat somewhere off Islamorada en route to Miami. She was amazed at what a good chart, a watch, a hand bearing compass, and a pen and paper could do.  But I also remember the first time I tried to enter Key West at night about four decades ago. It really is much easier now :)

[seabob4]

Bob,

I did get the opportunity to impress the little lady a decade or so ago when the electrons went on strike on our charter sailboat somewhere off Islamorada en route to Miami. She was amazed at what a good chart, a watch, a hand bearing compass, and a pen and paper could do.  But I also remember the first time I tried to enter Key West at night about four decades ago. It really is much easier now :)

Charlie,
When I started at Proline in '06, one of their upcoming options was going to be a bow thruster on the bigger boats.  My boss said, "Why?"  Of course he was shot down by Johnny Walker, and since I had a lot of experience with the installs at Stamas, it was no problem...

We are at our Dealer Meeting in July, '06, with a 35 Express, triple 250 Verados, and a Lewmar thruster.  My boss is debarking, and he uses the thruster.  I ask him WTF are you doing?  You don't like them!

His reply?  "As long as it's there..."

As long as they're there, may as well use them...    

[Necessary Evil]

I never thought I would ever need or want a thruster, until I bought a Grady 33 Express without one. The outboards just could not generate enough bite at slow speeds to manuever well, and the hardtop created a huge sail area. That boat was a bear on a windy day!

[seabob4]

Thruster's are the cat's meow, just a little pricey...

[Capt Matt]

I like the sonar on my Garmin 546s and have no complaints, I did get the round after market transducer that mounts flush inside the hull that you fill the mount with oil between transducter and the bottom of the boat so it has no air pocket to read through. It rarely looses the bottom even while backing up. Anything less than about 1.4ft starts to flash but all units I have ever used do. When its that shallow and you can see the bottom does it really matter. The chartplotter is a awesome feature for running in the dark or fog, simply follow the trail. You could leave your wife a trail around the bars and other points of interest.

Flush mounting the unit if possible is really the way to go, makes it much easier to see in the sun and stops any salt spray from getting on the connections in the back. Makes for a much cleaner install too
Capt Matt

[TheKid]

Lowrance HDS.

I was in your shoes as well last year. Considered everything.

I wanted dual displays but space and money were/are an issue.

For a back up, any smart phone with GPS and the Navionics app installed will do.

Heck that's all I used the year prior to picking up the Lowrance unit.

Just a thought.