..... Some of you might find this interesting. I was shopping on Defender's site and spotted this deal -- A B&G Zeuss Touch 7" for $400.

That looks like just the thing to replace my clunky Lowrance 7" CP that has bad factory-charts, slow screen refresh, and crashes frequently using Navionics charts. OK The Zeuss Touch is 2 year old technology and not the latest -- But the B&G is compatible with my Lowrance Broadband radar, sounder, and NMEA 2000 connectors, so (other than the power cable) it's a plug and play replacement... and it has "Sailsteer" (described below).

Click! So much for my "savings" by shopping Defender's annual sale. If this works out like I expect there will be a Lowrance HDS7 on eBay in a few months, or maybe I'll keep it as spare.

"SailSteer is a graphic display of all your vital sailing numbers, including speed and course, wind direction and speed, wind direction over time (to spot shifting breeze trends), and average wind speed over time (to differentiate a building breeze from gusts so you know when to reef). It even displays laylines on its compass rose-like interface to help you steer more efficiently. SailTime complements all this and takes into account both wind and current to determine speed and distance to a waypoint and can display the information in various ways.

With Zeus, you can also use your choice of cartography (I can use it with my existing Navionics), and overlay upon it graphics that show you your laylines to a waypoint, wind shifts, and all the other sorts of information you might choose to view, such as radar, weather, etc."