PLOTTING A NEW PATH
A dated stereo and ageing nav gear prompted Hugo to look for some modern upgrades
With no realistic prospect of being able to upgrade my current boat to something newer and bigger any time soon I keep the buying pangs at bay by upgrading key parts of it instead. Over the years I’ve added Flexiteek decking, wrapped the hull with silver vinyl, reupholstered the cockpit and fitted a Coast
Key wireless kill cord system. It all helps the boat look and feel a bit younger than it is but a couple of things are now starting to give the game away. One of them is the stereo system, a Kenwood CD player with a removable faceplate that even in its heyday never sounded much good. The other is the Lowrance chartplotter, which still does the job well enough but lacks the style and functionality of a modern touchscreen MFD.
Fusion and JL Audio seem to be the two main players in the marine audio market so that’s where I turned to first. As luck would have it, at the time of my research phase, Fusion had just launched a new Apollo 670 unit, which includes all the key features such as Bluetooth and Wi-fi streaming and a waterproof 2.7in colour display but in a more compact size and at a more attractive price point than the rest of the Apollo range (around £430). They also suggested replacing my boat’s speakers to fully appreciate the sound quality so I opted for a pair of like for like 6.5in XS speakers (£130) to minimise the hassle of installing them.
Replacing the Lowrance plotter was a trickier call. I had been waiting for Simrad to launch a new generation of mid-range touchscreen MFDS but couldn’t resist taking a closer look at some of Garmin’s offerings in the meantime.
There isn’t enough room on my Karnic to have a screen built into the helm so that meant finding one with an external mount that would fit in the gap between the top of the helm moulding and the windscreen. To cut a long story short the Garmin GPSMAP 922xs (£1,299) offered all the features I was looking for as well as being exactly the right size and shape.
Platinum Marine came and fitted the new equipment on site, doing a very neat job of it and even returning at a later date to install a transducer to make the most of the MFD’S sophisticated sonar and fishfinding functions.
Unfortunately by the time I got my act together and lifted my boat for the new kit to be fitted, winter had already set in, so although I’ve had a quick play with all my new toys in the confines of the boatyard, I will have to wait until next season before reporting back on how well it all works in practice. What I can tell you is that the Fusion system sounds a million times better than my old Kenwood and that the features, ease of use and sharpness of the Garmin’s 9in display look to be an equally big step forward. I can’t wait for the start of a new season to really see how they improve my boating experience.