I need a Nav system

All right, now that I have this boat, I need a GPS chart plotter/nav system. Any suggestions? I like the network enabled ones but I think they are out of my price range but I don't want a piece of crap. I have looked at the major brands; Garmin, Raymarine, and Furuno but It's difficult to compare what you get for the money. I saw one on a website, I think the brand name was "Standard Horzion". Lots of features but I've never heard of the brand. I'm trying to keep it between $1000 and $1200 but I could go more if I need to.

Help, Help, Dog Daze?, anybody?

I have a Furuno Navnet system on my boat. It allows tons of expansion flexibility, and unlike other brands Furuno's new stuff is always compatible with their old stuff, so you can expand in future years without having to junk what you have. I was able to use an old radar antenna and an old transducer with my new display.

Why do you need a chart plotter? They are nice but I get along very easily with a GPS. What is a chart plotter going to show you, OI or hatteras inlet? You already know where they are. The point Im making is, a chart plotter is great for some things but really nit nessecary. I've got the Furuno GPS, I will check the model when I get home. It alows you to track yourself, store over a hundred points, go to a point, string points together to say, navigate out of OI in the fog and then get back etc etc. It is as good a GPS as they get (IMHO) for under $400..

For the price/performance, you can't go wrong with the Furunos.

For the “casual” boater, I can strongly recommend Garmin. Very intuitive. I’ve got the 162map and you can down load underlays. Much slicker is the 182 & is less than $600(182C in color about $850) with the Bluechart chip give you bathemetric contours, navigational aids, artificial reef, wrecks, 3000 waypoints, tides, etc. As dogdazes said tracking features helps you backtrack after dark or run back thru sloughs and cuts. All the navigation aids helps a bunch around a fairly complicated area like Morehead City/Harkers Island.

Garmim’s customer support is 1st rate and the only issue I knows of is a cheesy fuse holder they use that I’d swap out.

Furuno are top-shelf and you find them on most commercial boats, but from my two experiences trying to use them, they were less intuitive.

For $1000/1200 you can get a pretty dang good combo color GPS/sounder these days.

Standard Horizon make a reasonable handheld VHF but don’t know about their GPS stuff.

If you haven't already, go to the electronics forum on Thehulltruth.com. 38,000 registered users from all over the country and around the world.

This is the one that's number one one my list so far.

Lowrance GM 5500C (http://www.lowrance.com/Outdoor/Products/GM5500C.asp)

What do y'all think?

I like the Furuno stuff because of it's networking capability but it's damn expensive.

I have a Raymarine fish finder so I'm not looking at the GPS/SONAR combos.

I have a Lowrance bottom machine. I love it. It is tough as nails. Been in the boat since the 1st Dog Daze. If you like it, and it is in your budget, get it. !!!