Text Box: 3340 Placida Road  Englewood, FL  34224 (941) 698-1444

 

 

 

Home Text Box: There are a lot of gps devices out there and a lot of alternatives. If you are looking for a direct answer as to which one you need..... There is no direct answer So what I will attempt to do is list the features of each manufacturer in their own pages linked at the bottom of this one and keep the focus of this page not on what to look for in a GPS/Chartplotter but rather how to look for one that is going to do what you need it to do. 1. Decide on whether you need a handheld or a full blown Raymarine with every option known to navigation. (A good handheld is a wise idea even if you have the latter). 2. Determine whether you are just going out every now and then, how far you are going, if you are staying within the inter-coastal or on a lake and you are not going to any areas you are not familiar with, spend the GPS money on some other boating accessory and skip this whole page. If you are just bouncing from inlet to inlet, fishing close offshore, carry a handheld along with fresh batteries for that 1 time you fall asleep and aren't sure how far you drifted or where you woke up. Most modern handhelds offer basic mapping functionality and the ability to store tracks and waypoints like their bigger bretheren. If You are planning on exploring the waters in your area and are unsure of the areas you are going into get a chartplotter style GPS with a good set of maps installed THose soundings and wrecks showing up on your screen can save you a lot of headache and keep you from hitting something you dont want to hit. Even in Charlotte Harbor and Little Sarasota Bay, I know of things like Submerged pilings, old wrecks, shallow areas that don't have an easy way back out or only have 1 way in/out Makes me cringe when I see these deeper draft boats blasting by outside the channel. If you are planning on exploring far from home or seriously going offshore, get the real thing, whether it be Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno, SiTex, Lowrance or whoever. Look around, Pop into a couple of marinas that have good displays set up and see which manufacturer has the type of display layout that YOU can understand - dont worry about the salesman or your buddy can understand it, You as the User are the one who needs to understand the display in front of you. Make sure you can learn the unit easily (most modern chartplotters are easy to understand) and that you have paper charts for the areas you are going to be in as well - or keep you maps in your chartplotter updated often. Click Here for types and manufacturers available  

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