"Matthew Millichap" wrote in
:

Sorry - 28ft motor cruiser - Cleopatra 850....no pool unfortunately!
Thx


http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap178c/
It's only a hundred bucks more than the monochrome one but lots easier to
see. WAAS GPS gives you position within 3', nice mapping sounder to keep
you off the bottom and show you the "trend" into shallow water I worry
about too much.

At $642, I get heart palpitations. It's a nice unit from a solid
company....but, God that's a lotta money for a little box.

It's got two NMEA 0183 inputs and a DSC data output for your VHF if it
has DSC emergencies.....but no Garmin CANet to hook up to other networked
instruments Garmin is now producing. That'll cost you $200 MORE in the
298C:
http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap298/

What kind of boating do you do? Cruise locally where you know all the
places or cruise off into the sunset into unknown waters where you need
the charting features more? Weekending in your local rivers, you hardly
need a GPS at all, especially one with full color chartplotter. For
those waters, a $139 monochrome depth sounder is what you need to find
the fish and watch the bottom come up uncomfortably close to that
amazingly-priced outdrive foot that costs the same as your tow
vehicle....plus labor, of course. Local boaters don't need color chart
plotters for weekend cruising at home.

The prices have all gone crazy, of course, in proportion to the number of
pixels on the screen, unlike the computers in your house that keep
getting more and more powerful for less and less money. NMEA is to boat
electronics what OPEC is to oil.

Are we SURE we NEED a new one....or do we REALLY need a new sonar
transducer and some 409?