Scup

Marco,

After reading some of the comments of our form members (all of the comments so far are true) and listening to you as this being a first boat, a few general pointers not mentioned should be brought to light. You original intent of buying a single do-it-all unit does have it good points; the negative aspect of having a single unit versus many discrete units has been well covered. Let's talk $$$$. The single most expensive component in an electronic package is usually its display. By going to a single do-it-all display the manufacturer does not have to supply separate displays for each function, hence, there is a large cost savings. You can get more bang for your buck with a do-it-all. This holds true for all the major players like Garmin, Raymarine, etc. As mentioned, should the do-it-all unit go down, you would be left with nothing. Baloney! You can purchase a very decent hand held Garmin GPS for about $150 that could allow a mariner to circumnavigate the globe. Should you have a complete electrical failure, the hand held Garmin just might be the only thing left on your boat that would still be working with its two AA batteries. Ask yourself when you make a purchase, should you get an extended service contract for your electronics. Since these contracts are based on a percentage of what is paid, the total price of an extended contract for several discrete units could send you to the poor house. The much lower cost of a single do-it-all unit now brings the extended protection contract into the world of reality. I am not going to get into the subject as to whether of not you should extend your protection but the following is very true: There is not a piece of electronics out there that cannot fail. Many manufacturers will have a fix cost of repair for their units, for which you may or may not be happy with. However, that is the way it is. The frequency of failure for a multipurpose unit is only slightly more, if that, than for a single purpose unit. If you have three brand new single purpose units you will very likely one them go down before the new multipurpose will fail. The more things you have, the more things can go wrong.
Next, consider how you are going to use what you purchase. Every mariner will tell you for "safety sake" have as much electronics as possible on board to help you out. Horse shit! I was Sea Trial Director for US Navy and had a near miss between a surface ship and submarine because I was fed too much information to digest. Just how good do you think you are? I had a helmsman, two radar men, a whole sonar gang, Officer-in-Charge (OIC), and a continuously updated plotting board to allow me to see what was happening all around me. Most will not admit it, but when they display Radar, Chart Plotter, Sonar, and Weather all at the same time, it becomes very easy to become overwhelmed by a glut of information. You are just one person, not a team, and you must never forget your main function of keeping a proper helm and lookout. When in a fog, you need your radar and GPS. When visibility is fine then your GPS should suffice. Looking for a tog rock pile after your GPS guided you near it, then you need your fishfinder. Just how long would it take you to observe a weather report before you would not need it further? The point I am trying to make is there are very few weekend mariners that can adsorb all the safety information now thrown at them. It has become a mental overload situation and one tends to forget the most important aspects of safety in of keeping a good helm and lookout. A single multipurpose unit (or several single function units) can easily confuse a person with data. However, all of the needed functions are there in a multipurpose unit, you can bring them up, or remove what is not wanted or needed for the particular situation at hand. It might take some practice such that you can select or remove items without even thinking, but it is mandatory that you hone your skills to this level. I believe this is the main reason why multipurpose units have not had greater popularity. Mariners will never admit that do not want to be distracted trying to call something up that they have not taken trouble of practicing till it became second nature to them.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather