Garmin GPSMAP 740s

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BaseCampAnne

New member
Have any of you added one of these :?:

I am thinking of adding radar at some point to my 22' so used that as an excuse to look at this. It appears to be very user-friendly :!:

According to Andrew at Harbor Marine in Everett, WA the dome can sit on the boat top as long as it is not directly over the driver eliminating the need for an arch, a significant cost.

Opinions of this new product?

Thanks,

BaseCampAnne
 
We just put a 760s in our new 22 Cruiser, sans radar. It's everything the Garmin site says it is. Appropriate sized screen for just above the wheel, very daylight viewable, and user intuitive. Sonar gives me all I need ( maybe some fishermanpersonspeoples might want more drill-down functionality, but suits my simple needs well) Touch screen is nice, and all it takes is a light touch w fingernail tip..no greasy hard push thumb prints to contend with. No complains so far.



BTW, I wish the Garmin 430's in our airplane were as simple and user friendly as the 760s. The 760s is a good device.
 
Earlier discussion:
http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t=13746&highlight=740s

I just installed the 740S w/out the radar. We have only been out once w/ the new unit. It is very user friendly and even The Admiral was comfortable using/navigating screens etc. You can even pan/move the charts by dragging your finger across the screen like a new cell phone. No complaints so far and we haven't even scratched the surface of it's capabilities.

There is a problem w/ the HD radar integrating w/ the units however per the Garmin website.
 
Our local West Marine had all their nav systems on display so the customers could touchy-feel them, which I did. I sure learned a lot about how easy/not easy the systems were to operate and how well the components integrated together. It sure opened my eyes.

IMHO, I found the Garmin systems were easiest to use and learn with their touch screens, and Garmin was the only system where everything was seamlessly integrated - on one screen the radar, GPS, electronic maps (chart plotter), and sounder were all integrated into one picture. Then, if you needed to buy some more gas or bait, it will give you a list and then show you how to get there.

I bought the 5212 Chart Plotter along with the radar, GPS, depth/fish finder, and radio. (My old tired eyes require a larger screen) It was all plug and play. I love the system. It is the best electronics I have ever owned. Night navigation is now a breeze.

I highly recommend going to West Marine to touchy-feel what they have so you can get a better idea what you want/need.
 
After about 150 hours of time on the Garmin 740s, I feel ready to make some comments on it's functionality.

The touch screen really is great and it would be harder now to go back to buttons. I find it easy and intuitive and my copilot isn't afraid to use it

We have a basic Garmin dual freq transducer and it works well for depth but I can't really comment on the details as we just don't use it for fishing like many would.

The HD radome is great and we actually trust it with default settings after some practice and can see craft as small as a kayak with good reliability. There have been a few small craft with intermittant signals but I would expect that. Large craft are easy to spot and track on-screen and the overlay feature works perfectly with only one limitation. The radar returns are shown in orange over the charts and there is no choice of other colors. This seems like something that may be changed with an update eventually and is not really a problem, just a surprise.

Display speed is fast and access to tide/current info is good enough to negate using paper references for anthing but remote site offsets from area guidebooks.

We have the G2 charts for the US but used the G2 Vision charts for BC and they are absolutely worth the extra money. Aerial photos, marina info, land points of interest, additional chart view options, and auto guidance are fantastic and we used them constantly.

We do not have autopilot but used the auto guidance for planning and to navigate around unfamiliar areas quickly. You just click and distination and it plots the entire route in one move and gives you total mileage and we found that helpful for fuel planning. If you deviate from the route, it provides good feedback to get back on route or you can just quickly re-calc it from your current location with two taps.

The Tide/current charts and tables are perfect and allowed easy planning for rapids days in advance and seemed very accurate to observed conditions. The app on our smart phone was not as accurate and we are not really sure why. (get what you pay for maybe)

The G2 Vision card also features three additional 3d chart views including an underwater 3d view that was actually quite useful for positioning ourselves during anchoring and provided a more detailed view of the bottom than contour lines can quickly convey (And I can read contours like most folks read newspapers).

I would not hesitate even a bit to recommend the 740s at least for non-fishing oriented exploratory cruising and would encourage anyone to get the G2 vision charts over the standard G2 charts.
 
I have a Raymarine C70 chartplotter/vhf radio/radar network on Cocoon and a Garmin 740s on my 16ft Alumaweld. I really like the 740s. It is much more user friendly than the Raymarine. I tried the G2 vision card, but was really unimpressed with it. The navigation feature is useful, I guess, if you have an auto pilot. I don't feel it is worth $300. I think you can get it on sale now for $119.
 
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