15+ Ways to Share the Gift of Boating
By the Editors of Power & Motoryacht
Steve Sprague brings his eight-year-old son Christopher fishing on their 34-foot Jupiter center console, but it’s more than just bottom-dunking. The two fish the Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) circuit as part of the Tuppen’s Marine team sponsored by Garmin. Best of all, Christopher is no token team member. “I’m running two 7215 Garmin displays and Christopher actually can work them just as well as anybody else,” Sprague says. “We usually have one screen on a chart, a nav chart or a fishing chart, and we’ve got the other screen on sonar, for watching what’s happening on the bottom.” Christopher’s totally on top of it all. “He watches the temperature,” Sprague says, “and if he sees a change, he’ll tell me. If we get a fish on, he quickly goes to split screen so we can watch the video of the fish.”
Garmin’s not the only purveyor of young angler-friendly technologies, of course. Simrad’s new SonarHub, for example, combines StructureScan HD and CHIRP sonars for amazing photo-like bottom views. Raymarine has easy-to-use sounder technology with great definition. And Furuno’s TZTouch works just like an iPad. All of them share screens with tablets for app users to track the action independently.
