Advise wanted on Combi Fishfinder/Charplotter

[Paul_H]

Hi all,

I have a limited budget (say £400) & I am looking to get a combi fishfinder/chart plotter for my rib. My basic requirement is for depth & speed & to a lesser extent chart position (I rarely venture more than a mile or so from shore). Is this the right solution for my needs? Can anyone make any recommendations for a internal antenna surface mount unit? I am hoping to try a few out at the forthcoming Southampton boat show but would like to be armed with a short list first. Failing purchasing one from the boat show are there any pitfalls from importing some thing from the states (as frequently advertised on ebay)

Any help/thoughts/comments are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

[Nos4r2]

That's a hard question. are you including cartography in that cost? If not, have a look at the Garmin 178c.

[Downhilldai]

If you're seldom more than a mile offshore, why not get a basic fishfinder (around £80) for depth and consider a handheld GPS to use as a speedometer? An alternative to the h/held GPS would be a pitot driven speedometer for around £40, but you'd need to cut a hole in the console for that, unless it already has one.
If you're set on a combi unit and are not fussed on the chartplotter function, you could get something like a mono Garmin 178, which would be a bit cheaper than the colour version, but you can't flush mount the internal antenna version, so would need somewhere to site the antenna.