New Marine Electronics and Discounted Installation Rates can fight off the Off Season Boating Blues

With some significant cold forecast for this week, it seems Old Man Winter is finally making a stand here in Connecticut. As we know from years past, nothing brings home the fact that we are in the “off season” like a snowstorm. It’s a trigger for Amarinus Extremus – boating withdrawal – like no other.

But just in time come the marine electronic manufacturer’s boat show announcements of new products that will trigger visions of warmer weather. When you combine this with our discounted off-season installation rates well, you can begin to smell the suntan lotion and diesel fuel.

Garmin echoMAP chartplotter with enhanced cartography features

How could Garmin improve on their easy-to-use echoMAP chartplotters with mid-band CHIRP sonar and Garmin CHIRP SideVü™ and ClearVü™ transducers? By adding BlueChart g3 and LakeVü g3 cartography with Navionics content for both new and existing customers.

“Our new g3 products combine the best content from Garmin and Navionics to provide the highest quality detail and coverage available to mariners today,” said Garmin worldwide VP Dan Bartel.

The new ng3 cartography displays navigational aids, spot soundings, depth contours, tides and currents, artificial reefs and fish attractors, as well as detailed harbors and marinas. The system provides seamless chart presentation with up to one-foot fishing contours that deliver a more accurate depiction of bottom structure which means improved fishing charts and enhanced detail in canals, marinas and harbor plans.

New customers will benefit from this data built-in across the Garmin echoMAP Plus series. Existing echoMAP Plus customers can utilize Garmin’s New Chart Guarantee to receive a free update to the new g3 cartography.  To learn more about the echoMAP Chartplotter Plus with g3 cartography, read the press release.

More Affordable Garmin Panoptix Imaging

Last year, Garmin changed the fishfinder game with the introduction of Panoptix™ LiveScope™ sounder imaging technology. The new gear allowed for real-time forward and down scanning views with the most vivid screen imagery available to date.

Earlier this month, they announced the Panoptix LiveScope LSV12 transducer, which offers 30-degree forward and down real-time scanning sonar views via an affordable single-array LiveScope transducer. It’s an economical solution for inland and near-shore anglers because it eliminates the need for a black box.

“Panoptix LiveScope is an absolute game-changer, and we’re excited to bring this live, real-time scanning sonar technology to even more anglers with the addition of the Panoptix LSV12,” said Garmin VP Bartel. “Whether you’re drop-shotting from the bow, jigging or fishing a dock, the Panoptix LVS12 delivers an easy-to-interpret real-time sonar image so you can spend less time looking for fish and more time catching them.”

The LVS12 can be installed on a trolling motor or on the transom, and its LiveScope Down and LiveScope Forward modes can be viewed simultaneously or individually. To learn more visit the Garmin Panoptix webpage.

Raymarine ClearCruise™ Augmented Reality Display Technology

Introduced at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show this past November, Raymarine’s new ClearCruise augmented reality display technology integrates the Raymarine CAM210 HD marine video camera to detect objects on the water and then, using the new Raymarine AR200 video stabilization module, overlay symbols for those objects on the chartplotter of a Raymarine Axiom multi-function display.

This new technology allows mariners to better recognize and respond to nearby marine traffic, gain some clarity in complex navigational situations and visualize waypoints in the real world. All of this combines for a safer and less stressful navigational experience.

SportFishing Magazine’s Chris Woodward describes the operation in this way:  “With the system configured and AIS, Waypoints or ATONs visible on the horizon, the system begins displaying flags above these objects.  The range and an icon indicating the target type is displayed. If it’s a dangerous target it’s displayed with a red border. The icons across the bottom (in the picture above) represent AIS targets, waypoints and chart objects; clicking each one toggles visibility of that object type.  Currently radar targets tracked via MARPA can’t be displayed in ClearCruise AR but Raymarine says that’s coming in a future release.

Learn more about this new technology on the Raymarine website.

If thinking about these products starts to minimize your boating withdrawal, that’s a start. If you want to hear more about them, or any other products you might be interested in, or pull the trigger on a new upgrade for your vessel while taking advantage of our off-season installation, please contact us to learn more.