I have a new to me Olson 25 that needs a new depth sounder. I haven’t splashed her yet pending some remaining work, and the mast is still down. I have a Raymarine i40 depth sounder and display that I could install, but I’ve pondering whether now is the time to invest in a modest instrument kit. The boat won’t have shore power, and will live its summer on a moaring buoy in the San Juans. I will have a solar panel to maintain the modest electrical needs for nav and cabin lights.

I’d like to have depth, speed through water, and possibly wind instrumentation. For navigation I’m happy to use paper charts and iPad, and a GPS and DSC capable VHF. AIS via something like the vesper, to also provide instrument details to an iPad seems like a nice to have. I’ll mostly be gunkholing around the San Juans, with some casual races in the islands thrown in.

Any opinions on eithe the Raymarine Tacktick line of instruments with a NMEA repeater and solar instrument displays? Would Garmin kit be a better option assuming I can support the battery load for it and AIS if desired. I could modify or swap the existing outboard for one with an alternator to maintain the battery if needed.