CHIRP vs ForwardScan

[hanslamitraille]

Hello,

I am debating what I should use one of my thruhull for, as I am going to upgrade my outdated electronic aboard my sailboat.

New fancy stuff are available. Besides the essential (depth, speed), what good use could I have for an available thruhull?

OPTION 1

ForwardScan from Navico allows you to see in front of your boat. Ok that is great, but limited to 8x (max) the depth below it, so very low response time in case water gets too shallow, like when you are navigating in an uncertain pass. Traditionnal way is to have a crew member check visually at the bow while you are at the helm, but in murky waters or with the sun reflecting, their eyes dont help much.

OPTION 2

Now you have CHIRP and all sort of cool transducers that allows you to see what is going on directly under. We are diving more than fishing. I think this could also be a nice feature to check what is down there before anchoring.

What option would you choose? (the answer can be "you don't need those stupid things, I won't be offended)

Thank you very much for your inputs.

[tanglewood]

I've seen zero reports from anyone using the Simrad forward scan. It's not even clear whether it's a real product yet. I wouldn't go near it until there was some conclusive customer feedback. They are famous for releasing half-baked, buggy, and incomplete products.

[hanslamitraille]

Well there are some installed. Videos of users on YouTube so I guess they are real. The guy that is going to help me upgrade the electronic has installed one already.

Now I agree with you, not a whole lot to read about. That's why I am asking around.

Thanks for your input.

[garrobito]

If you like a forward scan, you can google it.. they're other companies working in the same area. I would stay away from the forward scan from simrad.. at least for now...

[Neptune's Gear]

Chirp and fwdscan are not for the same tasks, but are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to have both a chirp and a fwd scan transducer on a Navico sonar system.
I have not (yet) used the Navico fwd scan, but I have used an old interphase fwd scan extensively. Yes, more than 10 years old now. Similar to the Navico one, single transducer, simliar depth/fwd distance ratios. It needed a bit of tweaking and user training/practice to understand it well. It was great in poorly charted areas, especially in coral or murky water. Next to the GPS, in coral it was my second favorite instrument. Others thought they were useless....
I will try the Navico fwd scan when I next upgrade my instruments.