{Stus-List} Instruments

[Bill Bina]

Well, I think it really is getting to be time to replace all of my 
instruments. The little annoyances are starting to accumulate. I'll most 
likely do it after the season is over, so I've got time to shop and 
compare. I would be replacing wind, depth and speed. Since instruments 
don't get replaced very often, I'd like to try and get this right. The 
setups I seem to see more than most is the Raymarine ST60 stuff. One 
brand that looks interesting, and very different in their approach is 
Maretron, but I haven't heard much of anything about them. They aren't 
exactly budget priced. I'm strictly a cruiser, but I sail in pretty much 
anything other than hurricanes, so I need good, simple, tough, 
equipment. I do like the idea of using combined data to get things such 
as apparent wind direction and apparent wind speed. I'm not crazy about 
having everything on one screen, either. I'd like the wind on a separate 
display from the speed and depth. With Maretron, that gets pretty 
expensive.

I'm shying away from Garmin, only because they haven't been doing this 
for very long. I've had great luck with their GPS/Plotters. I'm not sure 
how I feel about Tacktick.

Any thoughts?

Bill Bina