JDP

Early days at the moment still learning more about It and haven't been getting good weather. Unfortunately the only instructions are only on how to install it but I found some Garmin tutorials in French!!! which Ive managed to sort of get my head around.
First impressions were disappointing as I didn't realise the adjustment forward and back (fore and aft) also has an beam width adjustment, which meant I was loosing even 10lb downrigger balls at about 15m because I had it set on 10'degree. Now I have set the angle towards aft more and beam angle to 40x120 degree's so Im able to track slow falling 3-5inch soft plastics in 60m of water. This is great as before I had no idea where these slow dropping lures were in the water until they got snagged in deeper reefs. Id be happy with just 60m even out chasing game offshore as this will often be the depth I drop a live bait (dropping to 4000m out there is out of the question). Big packs of whaler sharks will soon be among the kingfish, panoptics should help me save loosing a few jigs and hopefully fish to them, not to mention stopping the jigs just before bottom or exactly where the fish are. 
On my last trip I experimented with the beam angle and was able to work my jig right along the bottom without getting snagged once. I also saw fish approach the lure and hesitated my jig action to get two fish first two drops, both species we rarely take on jigs, I was impressed. 
I haven't started my offshore marlin fishing yet as the season normally gets going after Xmas when the warm currents reach us, then I will be experimenting deeper, even then the marlin are often high in the water column pushing bait towards the surface which should be interesting to see in live view.
What Ive found with both Garmin and lowrance is that the depths they quote as max are normally easily achieved which I put down to the water clarity we often have. I feel anxious to get out on the water, not because Im missing the fishing but simply because using this is such a fun game changer. 
I would prefer a dedicated screen for it as the 10 inch is small if combining with charts etc. 

Recent purchases hmm,  
A new engine, hydraulic steering and a secondary plotter for engine data and a backup earlier this year,
new set of waterproofs, 
Oh and a new cleaning brush

I hoping to learn about the Shingles from an old sea dog a few berths away - knows the west end of the Solent like the back of his hand, big Bass fan

That would require a hell of a lot of global warming, hopefully we’ll get a chance to throw a lure at Bluefin without breaking the law
 

Haven't used my Avet for long, but according to other forums, the pinion bearing lets go regularly.  By the time I've sorted the backlash in the anti-reverse and that I'll have a new not Avet!

I’ll stick with my 25 year old TLD5 then 🤣

I take it you are the new owner of it, better you found it now rather than later.

Just thinking about it I ran my charts as heading up and magnetic north, where in my location we are 13.5'degrees in variation from true north. This was about the amount it was always out after calibration, which makes more sense now.
You will also have a certain variation from true north that corresponds with your location. If it seems slightly out you could try switching between true and magnetic north on the lowrance to see if that sorts it out.

Noted Jon - thanks. What Lowrance units were you using your Point 1 with?  Interestingly, the refresh rate on the Point 1 is the same as on the internal GPS of the head units these days, 10hz. I've only bought it for the compass/heading info really, so I may play around with the network settings and see if I can use the internal GPS for location data and only use the heading info from the Point 1 if mine is as hard to calibrate as yours was.
As for the switch panel - no idea. I bought the boat in September, so I don't know the history of the switch panel per se. I'm guessing it was fitted during the build and a lifetime of marina moorings and salt air have taken their toll on it. The rest of the under-dash hardware looks absolutely fine - no hint of corrosion anywhere else, so I suspect it's an isolated case. I'm sure these units are built to a price point.
Good idea about Yamaha lube, I'll give the exposed connections (and switch gear) a wipe over with it.
 

When I had point one on my last boat it didn't matter how many times I calibrated it it was always about 10' out. Kept up to date with firmware updates etc but always the same result.
I changed over to Garmin on the boat I have now and thought I would see if it worked networked together with Garmin, to my surprise it did. To calibrate it it I simply lined up our harbour mouth while around 10km offshore and checked it against the avionics chart and its now more accurate than when used with Lowrance. 
For that switch panel to get so bad was it exposed to saltwater ? Do you ever spray the connections with Yamaha lube or inbox etc to keep them in good order.

Its a bit of joke that every home has at least one boat in its front yard over here, in reality most have two!!!
This is one of the areas I used to be a member of marine rescue at (now in a new area). Ramps like this are common around the whole country and boats capable of doing more than 10kts need to registered, my state alone has around 270,000 registered boats. On a busy day this ramp would have over 2000 launches in a day. When tuna are moving along the coast there will often be questioned of boats several km long into boat ramp facilities, many queuing and launching all through the night (tuna fever). Even inland dams and rivers are stocked with fish and attract huge numbers of boats.

I use boning knives for bait and filleting, unlike fillet knives these are often far cheaper and hold the edge much longer, hence why they are the most common butchers knife.

I often notice how so many in the UK insist on DSC, where here I don't know anyone who bothers setting it up. Maybe because we don't have landbased stations set up for it and the fact no other boats tend to use it that your not really sending the signal to anyone. Our volunteer rescue centre has around 12 radios and 6 large screen computers listening and watching boaters movements but no dsc. I also saw a USA report where 8 out of 10 vessels had it setup incorrectly. Pushing the button is one thing but relying on other vessels to know the protocol when they here it is another thing. Do people on here know what to do when they hear a dsc signal. A dead boat ( flat battery, electrical issue etc) or tipped boat isn't going to have much use for it. Don't get me wrong I do see its merit if people have it setup correctly and others know how to respond when they hear it. I'm just surprised that we have around 300 vessels per day log on with marine rescue via vhf radio in a day from a small coastal town of 8000 people. There are more vessels that don't log on with these volunteer rescue groups than do.
I hope dsc doesn't give people a false sence of security and those who have it have fully tested it. 

Nope. And that's my point. By the time you've navigated your VHF's MMSI menu and found your target station's MMSI entry it's just quicker and easier to raise your target on 16.
If the VHF manufacturers paid more attention to the usability of their menu functions it might be different, but users will always take the easy option, not necessarily the technologically smart option.

You only find how dangerous they can be in conditions you would rather not find how dangerous they are. When you are pushing to get home in big seas and find yourself taken side on by swell and the fins exaggerate the motion and hold you on your side you will need to react fast in order to not turn the vessel over. You can expect this continually if you are being hit by the right sized waves from a certain angle. The only boats Ive ever left them on after buying a secondhand boat have been boats to be used in calm conditions ( river and estuary boats).
Self leveling tabs are about the same money and don't seem to have this same effect of holding the boat at extreme tipping angles. Over here fitting fins to outboards voids the outboards warranty, many outboard mechanics claim they also put unnecessary pressure on the pivot areas where the engine turns. Ive seen many engines where the plate they have been attached has cracked or broken from people using them as a step to get into their boats. In saying that you dont very often see them being used on offshore trailer boats anymore here as people have had bad experiences from them ( including me ).

For me, it's the thought that if they really worked as suggested then they would come as standard from the outboard manufacturers. Happy to be proved wrong, but the development budgets and brainiacs of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki etc are unlikely to have missed a trick.

I had years of messing about trying to use a low cost ellectric soldering tool with poor success. Recently went over to using a little dremel gas soldering tool which has attachments for hot knife rope cutting and a heat shrink attatchmeant and now my connections look very professional. This tool wasn't expensive and seems to run for a good amount of time on the easy to fill gas. There are plenty of UK YouTube videos that convinced me this was the tool to get.
When I use heat shrink Ive been putting dialectic grease over my connection, when the heat shrink squeezes down on the wire the grease oozes out ( might not be the way to go but haven't had any problem ).

I will sometimes put the kill switch leash around my leg, they get in the way to much when put around your wrist. I have seen cases here where people have put the leash around their wrist and accidentally disconnected it while crossing the bar, which has then ended by the boat getting caught out by the waves, ending in fatalities. 
 
 
 

My seagull was probably the most unreliable outboard I ever owned and the first. I think its these early engines that have embed the fear of breakdowns into many of us where in reality modern engines are extremely reliable. Just like an old two stroke lawn mower with heavy oil ratios, the seagull was the same, constantly oiling up the plug if I trolled lures for a while. Hard to start both hot or cold to the point when I did start the dam thing I wouldn't stop it again until I got home, which meant re-fueling it while it was running out at sea around the Needles area!!!!
Out of interest how long do most run their engines for on an average trip, for me it would be the entire trip most of the time, yesterday being around 7hrs. Petrol or Diesel engines started and run short distances to fishing grounds would barely be getting warmed up.

My engine gets between 2 - 4 hours on the average trip, however, for safety reasons I always kill the engine when drifting or when I am not at the helm. In an open boat it is far too easy for somebody to accidentally knock the throttle, which, if the engine was running could have dire consequences.

My seagull was probably the most unreliable outboard I ever owned and the first. I think its these early engines that have embed the fear of breakdowns into many of us where in reality modern engines are extremely reliable. Just like an old two stroke lawn mower with heavy oil ratios, the seagull was the same, constantly oiling up the plug if I trolled lures for a while. Hard to start both hot or cold to the point when I did start the dam thing I wouldn't stop it again until I got home, which meant re-fueling it while it was running out at sea around the Needles area!!!!
Out of interest how long do most run their engines for on an average trip, for me it would be the entire trip most of the time, yesterday being around 7hrs. Petrol or Diesel engines started and run short distances to fishing grounds would barely be getting warmed up.

Hi this is my 27ft Colvic Northerner
before fitting new electrics now Has Simrad go but gonna put in Lowrance HDS 9 with Simrad Structurescan 3D also has pc running Timezero
Just added hydraulic steering and auto pilot too, be able to get the bacon on whilst transiting 🙂 

It isn't a risk if you know a little about the manufacturer etc .......... being in the trade, I probably am able to source this info easier .
28lb spectra with a 30lb Sakuma  copolymer leader and a 92lb conger is a fair test ........... 👍 ................ 80lb Spectra and a large Bluefin is also a fair test, TBH I was more worried about my bimini top shot knot and the Aussie plait leader knot than the braid 🤣

Yes but there are many different Chinese braids, some people were caught out buying 50lb green Chinese braid that snapped like cotton because it was actually cotton over here. One fella asked me to take my 1800m spool of saltiga braid to work to see if it compared to his saltiga he had bought off eBay from China. Instantly you could see the label was different (why don't people copying simply scan a label ). His line had a really bad chemical smell and the colour easily rubbed onto our hands. The braid did however seem pretty strong until it became wet after the first time, where it then dropped to an easy hand pull and break. 
To me it simply isn't worth the risk, I buy genuine line from reputable suppliers.
Jervis Walker do a braid that is very cheap, under $10 for 300m, I bought some to put on a reel I was selling which was the first and last time I will buy that!!! This stuff was meant to be 20lb but was thicker than the saltiga 150lb I own.