Which electronics?

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chi-girl

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at the moment all i have is a handheld VHF.
most of my boating is in Chichester Harbour but I will be leaving the harbour later in the year or in the spring and venturing a little further out

The boat is a shetland 498 with a new 20hp 4st outboard

I'd like a fish finder but do i Need anything else. a chartplotter sound useful but i dont think i'll have room for it.

any suggestions.
 
You presumably have a fixed steering compass.

A budget priced hand held GPS might be useful ( Etrex perhaps) Provided you have a paper chart you cannot then get lost.
IMHO for what you will likely be doing a chartplotter is OTT

Until you get your fish finder an inexpensive echosounder would be worth having.

( do they really find fish?)
 
i dont have any compass but i will get one.
ive seen f/f's for about £100 but havent a clue which is best etc. i dont mind black and white and its only used in the harbour and just into the solent so it doesnt massive power
 
i presume they work like an echo sounder but with some chip that measures the return and thinks there is a fish in the way of the ping.
i dont suppose they will be super accurate at my end of the budget but it's nice to know how deep it is and the shape of the bottom would be more telling of fish life than the electronics on the ff
 
Agreed, a handheld GPS would be a good idea. Chi Harbour is not the easiest place to spot when a couple of miles out or so.

I had a fish finder on the last boat, and it was pretty much a waste of time.

Anyway, with your luck, I didn't think you'd need one.
 
i have several car satnavs spare as my new car has one built it. dont suppose they would be of use as it give coordinates aswell.

i also have a spare laptop with xp on it. how would that recognize where it is , suppose i need some sort of attachment and then some software
 
You may be able to get something for the laptop, but you'd still need to get a gps dongle for it. I currently use my iPhone and have got the navionics marine maps on it. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch/iPad with gps, that might be the easiest option for you too. The navionicsiPhone app has the exact same maps as they use on their chart plotter series and is only £15.

The car gps probably wouldn't help much to be honest.
 
thanks for the reply.
if i dont ask these silly questions then i wont learn.
i only launch at itchenor and either go to east head or over to sparkes area and fish but the other day i ventured as far as the sub barrier at hayling at high tide. for me there is plenty to see and enjoy in the harbour for at least this year but next yr i will go out to sea weather permitting and would be delighted to go to bembridge or cowes. but not on my own. maybe a convoy
 
So far I've only been out the once, launched at Emsworth, drove to the ship pub and moored up for a coke. On the way back I played with the navionics and it tracked my route pretty well, even when I was practicing parking up to a buoy and turns (it was only my 2nd time driving a boat). It's a useful bit of software, basically does everything you could want from a marine gps except give you a real-time speed indication. It does record the speed as when you view a tracked route it will give you your average speed and top speed. I'm still very much learning myself :)
 
im not too bad, i can grab a bouy or dock at a jetty with the tide running a few knts in either direction.
myself and my hubby had boats on the broadfs and canals for about ten yrs until he passed away earlier this year and i decided to get a boat for the harbour so got a mint condition shetland 498 and a brand new outboard so i know i can rely on it and ake myself and the children fishing and have a general play about on the beach in witterings for a few hours.
 
Nothing wrong with using a car satnav. Just keep it dry. It may try to force your location on to the nearest road when showing your position and you can't usually set a waypoint goto using lat and long but as you say you still have lat and long.
 
If its like the one in my daughter's new car it'll take you on the M25 whether you want to go on the M25 or not!
 
the inbuilt one in my nesw nissan is a pain to use. awful voice that shouts at me and sometimes locks up and doesnt recognise a postcode.
ive given up with nissan fixing it
 
I had A Nissan in 03 with a built in sat nav and that got very confused when getting on a ferry, as soon as you start driving on the ferry deck it kept saying "when possable do a U turn" then if you stayed on the car deck (as you can on the wightlink ferries) and watched the screen it just showed the car in the middle of a plain blue screen ! I would hate to think what happened to in on the cross channel jobs but it did instantly pick up where it was as soon as you land and get onto a road.
 
Do not mis judge the use of a depth sounder or echo sounder, its essential you know what is below you as a depth reading, how will you know by looking at the sea if you are in 1ft ot 20 ft of water,

I brought a garmin depth sounder 90 with B/W lcd display great bit of kit, on ebay now for £90 quid
it will also give you a battery voltage reading on your display inc depth and sea temp. ive bneen very happy with it.

I have no interest in fishing but it will also show you objects below sea level like large boulders, tree stumps etc.

Fisrt bit of kit, yes depth sounder or plotter with depth sounder, as ive worked over the weekend i past a few chandlers and looked at the array of gizmos, must say larance and raymarine is very nice stuff, garmin plotters start around £375 for the gps 451/452 lovely kit with fully loaded maps, connected to your battery and away you go, that it, im still saving second hand market is about £200 ive missed 4 now all outbid at £246.

bridger marine in exeter have on there on there counter a special fish finder by laurance £76 inc vat new, give them a bell and see what the postage is.
 
Last edited:
chi-girl said:
the inbuilt one in my nesw nissan is a pain to use. awful voice that shouts at me and sometimes locks up and doesnt recognise a postcode.
ive given up with nissan fixing it
Click to expand...

Off topic but dont start on about nissan, their CS is diablical and so is their quality control these days, venture onto the navara forum and its woefull:eek:
 
i was looking at the ff90 on ebay so what is the clarity like on display. is the fish finding part any good or is it just for showing depth and bottom?

where does the transducer go on the hull? i presume it just wires direct to the battery but where does the transducer wire go? some mount inside and are bonded to the floor others on the transom.
 
Warpa said:
Off topic but dont start on about nissan, their CS is diablical and so is their quality control these days, venture onto the navara forum and its woefull:eek:
Click to expand...

it is because renault and nissan have a partnership now i think. ive had several renaults and all were dreadful in reliability but i liked the cars if not the dealers.
 
I am a relative novice, and I would not be without the depth finder. It is alledgedly a fishfinder (part of the Raymarine setup), but I don't think we have found any fish yet. I can't get any correlation between catching fish and finding anything indicative on the screen. But it does detect depth (vital to know how much water is under your keel) and I have confirmed position of wrecks with it for fishing.

The overall nav system is pretty good too, especially for waypoints and seeing where your boat is heading. The larger screen is essential compared with the handheld navs.

Hope this helps.
 
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