Marine Electronics Installation in Port Macquarie: How to Choose the Right Gear for Your Boat
Thinking about upgrading your boat’s electronics? Good call. The right kit—installed properly—can turn a “maybe” day on the water into a cracking session. Below is a plain-English guide to picking smart, reliable gear and getting it installed right by Shotgun Marine with our trusted partners at PMMS.
Start with the way you actually boat
Your setup should match your boat and your habits. Ask yourself:
- Where do you run? Hastings River, inshore reefs, or wider offshore? Depths and sea state matter.
- What’s the hull and steering? Trailer boat with hydraulic steering? Flybridge cruiser with NMEA 2000 backbone?
- What’s the goal? Sounder clarity for snapper, wide-area radar for bar crossings, or integrated autopilot for long coastal runs?
Core electronics to consider
- Chartplotter/MFD: Your nerve centre. Look for a bright screen, fast redraw, and support for the charts you prefer.
- Sonar/Transducer: This is where fish-finding lives or dies. Transducer placement and deadrise angle are everything.
- Radar: Awesome for night, fog, and bird work. Dome power and antenna height affect performance.
- Autopilot: Reduces fatigue and makes trolling patterns easy—if it’s matched to your steering system and properly calibrated.
- Networking: NMEA 2000/0183 integration ensures all the gear talks nicely and keeps voltage drops in check.
Brand fit for Mid North Coast conditions
We regularly install and support Garmin, Furuno, Simrad, Raymarine, B&G and more. Each brand has strengths—think mapping options, CHIRP performance, or radar range. We’ll recommend what actually suits your boat and fishing, not what’s on special.
Install quality matters more than you think
Even the best electronics can underperform if the install is average. We focus on:
- Clean power and grounding: Dedicated feeds, correct fuse sizing, tidy looms.
- Waterproofing and strain relief: Corrosion is the silent killer.
- Transducer mounting: Height, angle, and turbulence avoidance for crisp bottom lock at speed.
- Sea-trial & tuning: We don’t just bolt and go—we test on the water and dial in settings.
Why Shotgun Marine + PMMS
We’re a local, authorised team with decades of tools-on experience. Shotgun Marine leads design and integration; PMMS brings additional hands and service capacity for peak periods and larger refits. It’s the best of both—quality installs with reliable aftercare.
What a typical Port Mac install looks like
- On-deck assessment of helm space, cable runs, and power.
- Brand-agnostic proposal tailored to your boat and fishing.
- Neat install, documentation, and user handover.
- Sea-trial for transducer and autopilot tuning.
Book a local assessment with Shotgun Marine & PMMS.
Enquire now • Port Macquarie services
