Andrejs 4 Comments

Sometimes purchasing a used marine GPS for sale could save much money especially when for brand new GPS Chartplotter price is over $1K.

Not always the latest and high priced models are the best choices. Producers have their own tricks to attract customers unfortunately sometimes with totally unusable new features just to raise the unit prices. Not every time those tricks are visible for ordinary customers and even for more advanced as well.

For very new GPS for boats devices, a lack of real user’s information could lead you to the money wasting.

So, there is an opportunity to save by purchasing the used GPS navigation system for the much lower price. For this, you have to spend some time to make a proper research online and when available obtain information from fellow boaters or on numerous of forums.

It is not secret that buying second-hand items, no matter what it is, a risk is imminent. Especially when it comes to electronic and mechanical goods. I suppose that many of us at least once have purchased the second-hand car, and I believe that it is more or less a game of luck. In our case, GPS devices is a bit easier to check for hidden faults. Anyway, some technical experience is required.

 How to deal with this?

To all my words would not be an empty talk, let’s try to find a good used GPS for boats. We can set the main requirements: excellent cartography, echo-sounding, fish finder, the ability to connect to the smartphone Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, real water resistance, at least 5 inches display size, NMEA connectivity for wind gauges, AIS, autopilot and more. Ability to connect to get engine data.

From the first look very high demands, but knowing today’s electronic achievements this is not a rocket science.

Offer on the market is huge so why not begin a search for well-known brands and even amongst navigation devices met before. It is like you are about to purchase next used car when the brand, year and features is set. Your task is to find one which ticks all the boxes and the LUCK. Yes, this component is always variable. You can minimize the failure size, but it will never be entirely excluded.

Following this rule, I began my used GPS for sale search by imposing a high bar.

What about Raymarine e165 15.4” Multifunction Display, which on the time of writing available in Amazon.com for $4,637.38.

As far as I understand in marine GPS equipment features and have some experience not only as amateur boater the Raymarine brand is the stable and reliable manufacturer. Sometimes I used to compare something to the car brands, and the Raymarine is like BMW.

Product Description from Amazon.com

„E165 15.4″ HybridTouch Multi-Function Display, with Navionics+ U.S. Charts The Next Step in the Evolution of Marine Navigation Technology The all-new e-Series e165 15.4″ multifunction display (MFD) is designed to deliver no-compromise performance, incredible networking capability, and a superior user experience. Ideal for sail and power boats of all types. The e165 has an ultra-bright, sunlight viewable LCD screen and LED backlighting for maximum power savings. e-Series MFDs all feature Raymarine’s HybridTouch user interface offering full touch screen or button-based control.“

Raymarine anywhere onboard
Built-in Wi-Fi

Take control of eSeries from your tablet or smartphone using built-in Wi-Fi and Raymarine mobile apps.

View your chart plotter, sonar, radar, engine data and thermal night vision from anywhere onboard, right in the palm of your hand.

If you can afford good used Raymarine E-Series marine device than it is a great choice. Step by step collecting units and wiring them wirelessly your boat becomes like cruise ship navigation bridge. I would certainly be envious of the bridge skipper.

Searching publicly available information and reviews not so many can be found regarding this pricey marine navigation equipment. From my personal experience, the Raymarine is durable although I had some troubles, which were simply software failure and case were solved without spending a dime.

Coming back to used GPS for sale and searching for Raymarine E165, only I found was on eBay for $2,995.00.

Expensive?

How to look at it. When you can afford a $ 300K boat, then 3K is a tiny number.

I made a fairly extensive search for used marine GPS for sale and came to my own conclusion- not so easy to find an excellent device. Why?

Why?

Above mentioned is mainly about built-in GPS chartplotters and combo devices. First of all, almost every new boat came with installed navigation equipment either it is standard factory choice or personal the first owner choice and boat builder company making the design fit for equipment.

If you are ordered the new boat from the boatyard most likely you’re not looking for a used navigation or other equipment.

When it comes that purchasing second-hand boat, which is so popular, then, as a rule, it comes with installed built-in GPS, radar, sounder, transducer and so on.

In my practice once I had come across the situation when a friend of mine was forced to replace an old echo sounder transducer, and this resulted in almost all navigation equipment replacement. That was very complicated mainly because of money. Ultimately, I advised him to buy a good used GPS combo for which he initially did not want to listen.

 Finally, he agreed to a temporary solution and purchased second hand GPS combo Humminbird-788ci a bit more than for $200. His good boat still sailing with this Hummingbird device on board but removed old equipment no one wants to buy even for pennies.

I am sure that very rare you could find a good modern used marine GPS for sale and when you are luckily found one be careful and make a really proper pre-sale check. Trust me that marine guys are rather conservative to their navigation tools and seldom perform their navigation equipment replacement maybe once a decade.

It doesn’t mean that it is not possible at all.

When you really want to find something valuable and cheap regarding used pleasure craft and its equipment I have one good advice. Constantly check the used yacht advertisements. I live in Latvia but across the Baltic Sea is the wealthy Sweden and often widows selling their husband’s boats very, very cheap because they simply do not need it anymore.

One more advice, try to avoid buying used marine GPS for sell without guaranty online from abroad it is really risky. This is not the case of used car when the current model is just boring and want something new.

But who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky?