Once upon a time, we all grew immensely excited by a touchscreen interface from Apple so marvellously slick, we all felt like the intrepid pioneers of a brave new future. We had done away with the antiquainted dinosaur that was the button and left it on the scrap-heap of ancestral embarrassments alongside the video cassette, the rental television and the twin tub. With this new wizardry in our hands, we could scroll through our juke boxes, orchestrate our social lives and surf the net with nothing more than the brush of a fingertip. It was inevitable that the world of marine electronics would set about following suit.

Trouble is, the first incarnations of marine touchscreen were fundamentally disappointing. The need for robust, waterproof, impact-resistant, high-visibility screens meant they felt clumsy and backward in operation compared to the slick iPhones we had all come to love. Sluggish update speeds would also tend to leave us wondering where we were for five seconds or so, every time the screen attempted to scroll onto a fresh area of chart.

But now, at last, we have something that shows us how useful marine touchscreen can be. The new Garmin GPS Map750 touchscreen-controlled standalone marine chartplotter comes with radar capability and (in the case of the 750s) built-in sonar. It also comes with a seven-inch screen, plus pre-loaded UK and Ireland charts, including Northern France and the Belgian coast. And not only do you get the joy of a large, responsive touchscreen interface, but the split-screen viewing capability also allows you to exploit the data input from your engine instruments or sonar.

The GPSMAP 750 also features a standard radar port that lets you connect with any Garmin GMR series marine radar for target scanning on your chartplotter screen. And the convenience of this ‘plug-and-play’ potential means the cost-conscious mariner can take advantage of radar capabilities, without incurring the network price. In addition, these new units offer full NMEA 2000 connectivity, making it easy to monitor engine, fuel, autopilot and other onboard data via the plotter screen.

The screen itself is waterproof to IPX7, with extreme brightness for daytime readability and a super low-level dimming mechanism (as low as 0.5 Nit) for optimum night vision. And there are upgrade paths too, as the new plotters can be loaded with an optional BlueChart g2 Vision SD card, allowing you to navigate with a ‘moving-map’ representation of the boat’s position. The card also allows you to employ the Auto-Guidance feature, which suggests the best routes to follow and, if your vessel is fitted with a Garmin pilot, you can then instigate the pilot control to follow the Auto-Guidance route direct from the plotter screen.

Are there any downsides? Well a regular push-button equivalent could be yours for less money and the unit draws lots of energy to drive its powerful processor. The screen also runs quite hot during prolonged use but for most of us, that is likely to be a blessing rather than a curse.

Nigel Craine, Marine product Manager for Garmin, is fully aware how profound the impact of the new product could be: “Our touchscreen technology is recognised throughout the industry for its performance and ease of use. These chartplotters offer a whole new perspective on fingertip navigation and bridge the gap between the entry-level boater and the luxury yacht customer.”

The GPSMAP 750 is priced at £1,199.99 and the GPSMAP 750s (with built-in 1kW-capable sonar transceiver) is just £100 more. Available in April 2010, the new 750 range represents ample proof that our faith in touchscreen plotters was justified after all...

www.garmin.co.uk