Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am getting my boat next week and am thinking about adding gps. The boat does not have a speedometer and I am going to be on a lake winnipesaukie in nh. This is the largest lake in nh. I don't want to spend to much on the gps because I won't use it a ton. But I also don't want to cheap out and buy junk. What would you guys recommend. I have never been out on the lake alone and this is my 1st boat. I am getting charts and learned the bouy system. I just want the gps as a back in case I loose my bearing. This lake is huge and full of coves and off shoots. I think it is about 40 miles long and and close to 200 sqaure miles. It is not a pond or small lake. Helllllllp.

I went with a Humminbird combo gps fishfinder I cant remember which model off the top of my head but I got it for the same reason, If I ever do go out on Winni I didn't want to get lost.
I believe it was a model 788 but not sure on that.
They had some combo units that were cheaper but I went with the biggest screen size I could afford.
It was around 600 from Winnisquam marine.

Thanks, I forgot to mention that I ordered the boat with a depthfinder. I didn't know you could get a gps/depth finder combo until after I ordered it. So I only need the gps function. A combo sounds like a great idea, wish I had been aware of that option previous to ordering. I am sure it would have saved me a few bucks.

If you're looking for something to get you back to the dock if you become lost, a simple hand held marine unit would probably work. Something like the Garmin GPSMAP 60. You can buy the topo map of your state and that should give you an outline of the lake, but not a map of lake structure. I guess you could add your own waypoints of the buoy system. If you don't need maps, maybe the Garmin 72H. Go to gpscity.com and give them a call, they should be able to help, at least better than me. They also would sell a mount for the boat.

I also bought a Hummingbird dept finder with a GPS built in. When I installed it and put the boat in the water I found it had found me. Our lake was already in the GPS. I use it to play around with while I cruse the waters of our lake. I think that they said all lakes are included with it built in or something to that effect. I would check it out where you bought yours you might be able to upgrade. I bought it at Bass Pro Shops.

jimrs wrote:I also bought a Hummingbird dept finder with a GPS built in. When I installed it and put the boat in the water I found it had found me. Our lake was already in the GPS. I use it to play around with while I cruse the waters of our lake. I think that they said all lakes are included with it built in or something to that effect. I would check it out where you bought yours you might be able to upgrade. I bought it at Bass Pro Shops.

Yup, ours does the same thing, you can also get the card for it that includes all chart data/depth/bouys as well.

A GPS is nice toy to have but unnecessary for the Lake Winnipesaukee,. I had one on my sailboat, used it a few times and once the novelty wore off I never turned it on again in ten years. Besides, Lake Winnipesaukee is easy to navigate on its only nine separate lakes joined together by a common dam, just get a chart of the lake and you'll do fine. Navigation of the markers is easy too; just stay south and west of the red and white spars, north and east of the black and white ones, between the reds and blacks, headway speed where marked and 150' away from everything else. Who says NH is F**K UP from the rest of the world?

I’ve been boating on the lake for 35 years and moored in Wolfeboro @ the Corinthian Club, if you see me out there, stop by and say hi... I now have the ugliest boat on the lake a Party Cruiser 32, soon to be sporting the name "The Mucky Duck"… Someday I suppose I’ll come to love it… That’s if I can ever stop laughing every time I see it.

THAT IS A BIG BOAT. I AM SURE I WONT MISS YOU IF YOU ARE IN THE GENERAL AREA. I AM OVER IN MOULTONBORO AT ARCADIA CAMPGROUND. MAYBE I WILL TRY JUST THE CHARTS AT 1ST AND SEE HOW IT GOES. I AM CONCERNED ABOUT NIGHT TIME AND FOG. MY THOUGHT WAS TO USE THE GPS FOR THESE SCENERIOS. THANKS.

This one is not low cost but from what I understand it does it all.
http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine ... rtplotter/
I have a depth finder but don't have gps for maping an speed. Actually the reason I am wanting it is to identify where the standing timber was left since now it is at or below water level, which I found out last summer to the tune of 5k damage. Know this isn't something you had in mind but this is what I will probably get.
doc

1roadking wrote:THAT IS A BIG BOAT. I AM SURE I WONT MISS YOU IF YOU ARE IN THE GENERAL AREA. I AM OVER IN MOULTONBORO AT ARCADIA CAMPGROUND. MAYBE I WILL TRY JUST THE CHARTS AT 1ST AND SEE HOW IT GOES. I AM CONCERNED ABOUT NIGHT TIME AND FOG. MY THOUGHT WAS TO USE THE GPS FOR THESE SCENERIOS. THANKS.

You'd best not trust you ass to GPS in the night time, remember what just happen to Erica Blizzard. Driving her 37' boat, 1:30 in the morning in the rain and fog with complete trust in her "best that money could buy" GPS and ran full speed into Diamond Island, killing her BBF and disfiguring herself for life plus she gets two years in the slammer. Even I could have told her there are dead spots on the lake and GPS are just aids to navigation and not to be trusted with your life.

If you find yourself in those conditions you'd better stick close to shore and feel your way home or invest in radar. I had both radar and GPS on my last boat and the radar was the most useful tool I had. I could see the crazies sitting out there in the middle of the broads without any lights on stoned out of their minds. You can't hear a sailboat until it runs you over, it happen to me twice before I got the radar.

Get the GPS, I have been on our rivers after a hurricane and you can get lost even in the day time, I found there where a whole lot of choices to go coming down stream, if I didn't have a GPS with bread crumbs it would have taken me hours to get back.