Northwest Dive Club

Hello to all boat owners on the board. I'm looking at buying a marine GPS unit, or at least entertaining the thought right now. Any suggestions? Brand, functionality, price, fixed unit or portable one? Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

For boat use you will want a fixed mount.
you can still use a hand held but with a mount.
the bigger the screen the better.
you can get a gps chartplotter, or a combo unit that has a fishfinder to save space and money.

for me i want a unit that supports detailed charts.
it helps to find new and existing sites.

right know i use a Ray Marine in my larger boat a Garmin in my small one.

you have a lot to choose from.
$100 to several thousand.
keep in mind you are in a marine environment and cheap stuff may not last.

coulterboy wrote: I'm looking at buying a marine GPS unit. Any suggestions?

It would depend a lot on the size and type of boat that you have and what features you would be using.

Don's advice on getting the largest screen you can afford is very good. The bigger the screen, the easier it is to zero in on those awesome dive sites (aka wrecks).

If you have a weather tight pilot house and want professional grade equipment, I'd suggest Simrad NSE or Furuno.

If you have an area that is protected from rain, the Raymarine and Garmin units are very popular with recreational boaters.

If you want side-scanning capability and all the networking bells and whistles, Lowrance usually has the best bang for your buck.

If the boat is open and has no protection from weather/rain, I'd look at the Humminbird units. They are easiest to remove from the boat (they use an integrated wiring harness, one thumbscrew to remove/reinstall), so you can store the unit in the house without worrying about water intrusion from our lovely rain.

Lot's of choices!

Thanks for the replies/advices. I do have an area that is protected from rain. Right now, I have a Lowrance fish finder which also functions as my speedometer. I certainly don't want to pay anything over $500.00. At least for now, we'll see if the budget can go up a bit higher.

I've been pretty happy with my Lowrance HDS7. for about $500 you could get yourself a HDS5. Then later if you want you could add structure scan. IMO the smaller screens (around 5 inches) are fine for smaller boats and if you're ok using one function at a time. If you want to run multipe functions on screen at the same time like chartplotter+fisfinder, then I personally wouldn't want anything smaller than a 7" screen, with bigger being better.

Humminbird has some nice units in the $500 range. ~6" screen, full color and dual transducer. Be sure you understand how the transmission cone affect your returns and which colors are the narrow vs wide beam.

Good point Richard. Thanks.

I'd say skip the Humminbird sidescan features unless you get the highest grade units. The mid-range ones don't work as well. There are other brands/models obviously, but something like this
http://store.humminbird.com/products/39 ... i_HD_Combo

You might want an external GPS sensor though, not sure what your mounting location is like.

I use a lowrance hds-8 and love it. It's a bit higher than your price range, I got mine for 1600. I don't own the side scan and probably won't buy the upgrade to use it. If I find something on the normal sonar and am interested, I just strap a tank on and dive it.

Just got back window shopping at Westmarine in Everett. They have a Garmin 441s, regularly priced at $550.00 on sale for $349.00 In reality, that's all I need. Still looking for more options though.

Thanks for the replies guys.